ABSOLUTE WILSON

DOCUMENTARY, USA/Germany, 2006, 105 minutes

Director/Producer/Writer: Katharina Otto-Bernstein
Co-Producer: Penny CM Stankiewicz

This film is a provocative and moving portrait of perhaps the most visionary theater artist of our time, the legendary Robert Wilson. The film delivers a surprisingly candid look at Wilson the man: his lonely childhood in Waco, Texas; his early learning disabilities; his work with disabled children; his departure from Texas at the time of his coming out and his fascination with the downtown New York avant-garde scene of the late 60's. What emerges is a life full of impressions, colors and rhythms, making it all the more poignant how Wilson's early hardships ultimately shaped his ground-breaking aesthetic vision, creating some of the most historic theatre and opera productions of the twentieth century. David Byrne, William Burroughs, Tom Waits and Philip Glass are featured among his collaborators. It is a remarkable tale of a shy, stuttering boy's triumph over adversity - and an extraordinary opportunity for the viewer to know this amazing talent.

• 2006 Berlin, Jerusalem, Montreal, Warsaw International Film Festivals: Official Selection

Katharina Otto-Bernstein was born in Hamburg, and raised in England and the U.S. She graduated from Columbia University Film School and has worked as an independent filmmaker in New York for the past 15 years. In 1999, she met Robert Wilson at a cocktail party, who asked her for a shot of vodka. The chance meeting evolved into a three-hour conversation that in turn evolved into the five-year production of ABSOLUTE WILSON. Her book “Absolute Wilson: The Biography” has just been published.